Republicans are significantly more likely to identify as Christians than Democrats, and they have a distinct preference for evangelical Protestant denominations.
Pew Research Center’s recent Religious Landscape Survey looked at the correlation between political party (Republican and Democrat) and political ideology (conservative, moderate and liberal) and religious identity among American adults.
The survey found 74% of Republicans identify as Christians, and nearly half that share identifies with some evangelical Protestant denomination. The most popular of these denominations is the Southern Baptist Convention.
This is distinctly different from Democrats, of whom 50% are Christians, with only a quarter of that share saying they are evangelical Protestants.
Democrats are almost twice as likely to identify with religions other than Christianity, with 9% identifying this way compared to 5% of Republicans. They also are twice as likely to be religiously unaffiliated, comparing 40% of Democrats to 20% of Republicans.
When considering political ideology, which encompasses the philosophy of voters but not necessarily the party they align with, the split is much more extreme.
Pew found 82% of political conservatives identify as Christians, and half that share is part of an evangelical Protestant denomination, while 4% identify with other religions.
Yet 37% of liberals identify as Christian with one-fifth of them being evangelical Protestant, while 11% identify with other religions.
Liberals also are four times more likely to be religiously unaffiliated than conservatives, with 51% of Democrats holding this identity versus 13% of conservatives.
The religiosity of political moderates falls somewhere in between these two groups, with 61% of them identifying as Christians and just over a third of that share being evangelical Protestant. Only 7% identify with other religions and 30% say they are religiously unaffiliated.
R
esearch across the board has shown a steady polarization on the political spectrum in terms of religious affiliation.
In a paper published by Cambridge University Press in 2022, researchers Shay R. Hafner and Andre P. Audette suggest that “religiopolitical sorting” is a large factor in this split. That is, congregants are seeking churches that affirm their political worldviews and increasingly prefer to be in religious communities where most others agree with their ideals.
Gallup data from 2023 also suggests that, as an increasing amount of Republican and conservative politicians appeal to evangelical Christianity as a means of gaining voters, Democrats and liberals peel away from religion, disliking how politicized it has become in the U.S. In turn, this creates a strong correlation between American evangelicals and conservatism, while reducing the intensity of religiosity for liberals.
Aligning with these polarizing trends, the Religious Landscape Study found Republicans and conservatives are consistently more likely to engage in religious practices, or attend religious services, than Democrats or liberals. Ideological moderates tend to fall in the middle of the two groups.
There also are some poignant polarities in social and political views across the party and ideological lines.
When asked whether they think abortion should be legal or illegal, Republicans were surprisingly evenly split, with 42% saying it should be legal in all or most cases and 56% saying it should be illegal in all or most cases. On the other hand, 86% of Democrats think abortion should be legal and 14% think it shouldn’t.
However, ideological conservatives are a little more polarized.
Only 34% of conservatives say abortion should be legal, while 65% say it should be illegal. In contrast, nearly double the share of moderates (74%) and almost all liberals (90%) say abortion should be legal, and 25% of moderates and 10% of liberals say it should not be.
For both Republicans and Democrats, most believe it is possible to be moral and have good values without believing in God, but slightly more Republicans think believing in God is necessary to be moral or good (36% vs. 22%).
On the ideological spectrum, nearly half (43%) of conservatives say belief in God is necessary to be moral or good, while 28% of moderates and 14% of liberals hold this view.